Inside the New York Yankees clubhouse with MLB.com beat writer Bryan Hoch.

Cano, Jeter, Teixeira win AL Gold Gloves

Robinson Cano, Derek Jeter and Mark Teixeira have been honored with American League Gold Glove Awards. The award is the first for Cano, the fifth for Jeter and the fourth for Teixeira.

Jeter and Teixeira both won Gold Gloves last year with New York, and many believed Cano should have also brought one home too – and now he finally has.

There’s going to be a big outcry about Jeter’s win, and you can be justified in that argument. Baseball-Reference.com posted a link here under the text, ‘We can’t believe it either,’ and those statistics aren’t pretty.

Seeing those, I’m reminded of a conversation with Jeter last year, when he basically wanted to toss all of those advanced metrics in the Hudson River.

“You can’t sit around and figure out a defensive chart on somebody,” Jeter said then. “I mean, that’s impossible to do, so I don’t pay attention to it. There’s different pitchers, different hitters, different runners and different people playing different positions. You cannot do it.

“Everybody doesn’t play the same position, everybody doesn’t get hit the same ground ball, everyone doesn’t have the same runner. So you can’t figure out a mathematical equation on it. If Ichiro hits a ball in the same spot that a slower runner does, how can you compute that in a computer? You can’t do it.”

While many seem to agree Jeter’s range has diminished, let’s be fair and acknowledge he’s sure-handed on the balls that he gets to. He had a career-high .989 fielding percentage and just six errors, the lowest total of his career and the fewest among all Major League shortstops who appeared in a minimum of 110 games.

Does that necessarily mean Jeter should have won over, say, the Rangers’ Elvis Andrus? Begin those debates. Actually, judging by my Twitter feed, everyone already has.

Just to be clear, winners are selected by Major League coaches and managers prior to the conclusion of the regular season. Managers and coaches may not vote for players from their own club and may only vote for players in their own league.

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3 Comments

It was a disappointing season with the Yankees not getting to the World Series, however, it takes some of the edge of it to hear that Cano, Jete, and Tex won gold gloves. They are all deserving. So congratulations to the three and to the team. We’re in Clearwater Florida for the winter so are looking forward to getting to the spring training games and a new season. It will be interesting to see the personnel that comprise next year’s team. Will Cliff Lee be amongst them? Let’s hope so. I’d like to see Crawford there too as I think the Yankees could use another top outfielder and another strong bat in the lineup. Whether the payroll will allow it is another thing. Lee is the #1 priority.

How else can it be figured? If he had the highest % that’s it! As stated he was able to get to the ball to make a play. Maybe they should have a stat of ground balls he should have gotten to. Congats to Jete , Cano and Tex.. Arod wasn’t far behind!..
^6:42P

As above: “He had a career-high .989 fielding percentage and just six errors, the lowest total of his career and the fewest among all Major League shortstops who appeared in a minimum of 110 games.”
That’s good enough for me, but I am prejudiced!

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